Month: February 2011
The craving for warmer weather

OVERUSE of Timelapse
Anyone else besides me consider the OVERUSE of time lapse as an #epicfail to make up for the lack of a compelling story in filmmaking?
The use of timelapse has it’s place, for example as shown in Tom Lowe’s Timelapse, to provide the sense of time passing within a film, but it seems just because you CAN do time lapse, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
I ask my fellow filmmakers, please, for the sake of the emerging art and craft of digital filmmaking, use time lapse as a part of your film when it’s called for, not the foundation of your film.
‘nuff said.
An image I created to pay homage to the great photographer Pete Turner

What Inspires Me: Unforgiving Winter by Matthew Allard Description: With the rapidly decreasing Jap
What Inspires Me: Unforgiving Winter by Matthew Allard
Description: With the rapidly decreasing Japanese population it is the elderly that are feeling the effects. In rural areas of the country old people are left alone and isolated during Japans cold winters. With less young people schools and businesses have closed down in remote areas leaving the elderly to live in virtual ghost towns.
Filmed in Takane Village, Gifu Japan on a Canon 60D
Comment: Outstanding visuals that invoke a sense of isolation and the bitter cold apparent throughout the piece.
What Inspires Me: Brothers Of The Bike by Team Satten Short doc made for Harley-Davidson Motorcycles
What Inspires Me: Brothers Of The Bike by Team Satten
Short doc made for Harley-Davidson Motorcycles about African-American motorcycle culture past, present and future.
This is an interesting piece that profiles the culture of Harley’s and African-Americans – something I didn’t’ know existed. Kudo’s to all involved in the project!
What Inspires Me: The Perfect Brew by Matthew Allard for Aljazeera The Cinematic look of Broadcast V
What Inspires Me: The Perfect Brew by Matthew Allard for Aljazeera
The Cinematic look of Broadcast Video Journalism. Shot on Canon 5DMkII
Cliff Etzel
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is compelling video content worth?
Using existing light to its fullest potential
It’s my belief that when you can control your existing light – or practicals – to the point that it looks like you brought lights with you – then you have skills.
I like to keep things simple – especially since I work solo all the time. So I have to keep things Zen like – hence why I choose whenever I can to use the existing lighting when on location.
I shoot as a hybrid digital filmmaker and I understand the constraints of the contrast range of Canon DSLR’s. I have to know how to compensate with lighting so that I’m not trying to fix a mess in post production.
In my opinion, the ability to control the existing light in a given shooting situation requires more skill than setting up lights. True, at some point you will probably need to augment the existing light with some sort of lighting, but I’ve found, up to the present time, that the existing lighting of a given project has been sufficient – even desireable, to provide a look that would require alot more time and lighting equipment – thus delaying, or even adding to the expense of a project.
From a business perspective, given the nature of todays economy, there are clients who just don’t have the budget to allocate for renting a “proper” lighting kit. I know, my clients have said so. They’ve hired me to use my expertise and still stay within their tight budgets.
Light modifiers such as light discs and translucent silks with collapsible frames can provide a level of control in conjunction with existing light that gives a natural look to a subject. There’s nothing worse than watching someone being interviewed with “3-point Lighting”. It’s not natural.
The skill of observation of how light is falling on a subject is one that can profoundly affect ones creative vision. Using reflectors or silks to control existing light is a fantastic way of developing your skills. It also requires less of a “crew”. You can employ anyone to hold a reflector – they don’t need to be a trained lighting technician.
I do bring a lighting kit with me – basic as it is, but not once have I found where I couldn’t get what the client wanted with existing light. It was a matter of positioning the subject for the interview and understanding how to expose accordingly.
The ability to shoot professional quality content on a tight budget is that of walking a fine line. But it also shows how skilled one truly is in their creative vision with existing light.
The “Yes I Bounce” blog shows clear examples of why learning to control existing light is a skill worth having.
What Inspires Me: TimeScapes – Rapture by Tom Lowe @timescapes Amazing timelapse work – go full scre
What Inspires Me: TimeScapes – Rapture by Tom Lowe @timescapes
Amazing timelapse work – go full screen and turn up the volume!